In more moderate quarters, one hears an appeal to the theology of deification as if it were a kind of alternative soteriological “model,” opposed and in contradistinction to the idea of Christ’s vicarious offering in atonement for sin. Yet the fact remains: the language of vicarious representation, sacrifice, and legal vindication used to describe various facets of the saving work of Jesus Christ is to be found both in the Bible and the Fathers, where it has crucial and abiding theological significance. What the language of atonement indicates is not an alternative “model” to theosis, but rather a crucial dimension of that multi-faceted plan of the Creator to save His fallen creatures from death and destruction and to raise them up into union with Him. While affirming deification as the original plan of the Creator God and as the goal of Christian life, Orthodox theologians today must also maintain the objective reality of the divine and atoning acts accomplished historically once and for all on our behalf, without which the ultimate end of union with God would be impossible for fallen human beings. The Church’s sacramental and ascetical life allows us to hold these tensions together: it presumes the objective reality of the victory won on the Cross and of the continuing high priestly ministry of the ascended Jesus, while also inviting us to a free and active personal participation in these realities.

-Matthew Baker; Seraphim Danckaert; Nicholas Marinides. 'On the Tree of the Cross'